The tally of tenured and tenure-track faculty across Iowa’s public universities has continued the drop it started a decade ago, declining 10 percentage points in as many years.
Ten years ago, 3,531 regents faculty were tenure eligible, amounting to 63 percent of the 5,637 faculty total. Last year’s tenured and tenure-track count fell to 3,009 across the three universities — or 53 percent of the 5,635 faculty total.
Where the University of Iowa in the 2012-13 academic year reported a majority of its faculty had tenure or were on a tenure track — at 54 percent — UI tenure-eligible faculty today are in the minority, at 44 percent.
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The UI — which, unlike Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa, employs nontenured “clinical” faculty through its health care enterprise — is the only of the three with a majority of non-tenure-track faculty.
Both ISU and UNI maintain a majority of tenure-eligible faculty, although their non-tenure-track percentages are rising — reaching 35 at UNI, compared with 28 percent a decade ago. ISU reports 33 percent of its faculty are not on a tenure track, up from 28 percent a decade ago.
But regardless of tenure status, the number of faculty is falling across all three campuses, dropping from more than 6,000 in 2020 to 5,635 last year. That echoes enrollment losses across the campuses and total workforce declines at UNI and ISU over the last five years.
While the number of faculty is down at the UI — which has seen enrollment dip from 32,065 in fall 2017 to 30,015 in fall 2022 — its total workforce has grown over those five years from 18,359 to 19,332, Board of Regents documents show. Much of those gains has come in the form of executive, administrative and managerial staff; professional and scientific staff; and non-tenure-track faculty. UI officials have said the health care operation is responsible for much of that.
“The health care enterprise continues to grow and is responsible for a large amount of the workforce,” UI spokesman Steve Schmadeke said. “As new clinics are established the growth continues and more staff is needed.”
Tenure, according to the regents’ definition, is an “employment status under which faculty members can receive heightened aspects of job security in order to create and maintain an atmosphere for the free exchange of ideas and inquiry necessary for educating Iowa’s students and advancing knowledge in democracy.”
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Tenured faculty still can be terminated if they don’t meet job expectations or obligations; if their program is cut; or if the university experiences an existential financial crisis. Tenured faculty — who receive such status only after a six-year probationary period involving ongoing reviews and recommendations — also can received a “full range of disciplinary actions” short of being fired.
“I’ve been contacted by a lot of students in my district, some outside my district, regarding — for lack of a better term — just some of the irrational, woke stuff that’s going on on college campuses, the feeling that they’re denied free speech if you’re a conservative,” Rep. Steve Holt, a Republican from Denison, said in January.
Referencing issues across the three campuses involving left-leaning syllabus instructions, bias against conservative student organizations or administrative mass emails countering Republican ideology, Holt said, “I’m tired of playing Whac-A-Mole with these issues going on at universities.”
Legislative funding in recent years has fallen short of regent requests — like this year when lawmakers agreed to a combined $7.1 million bump linked to specific programs across the campuses, instead of the $32 million more in general education funding the institutions sought.
Responding to lawmaker concerns about lack of free speech and too much diversity, equity and inclusion spending and programming, the Board of Regents has formed committees to review the issues.
But, on tenure alone, regent lobbyists have told lawmakers nixing it would make competing for top faculty and researchers nearly impossible — compelling many already on campus to leave, hampering recruitment and harming the quality of education offered to UI, ISU and UNI students.
Research grants could dry up, they say, alongside enrollment and tuition revenue — tanking the reputation for quality higher education.
UNI reported developing “post-tenure review sanctions” — to be implemented July 1 — aimed at “faculty who are not meeting standards in teaching, scholarship or service, including those assessed with documented continuous and persistent problems,” according to board documents.
Even before the new sanctions, UNI departments had in place methods for evaluating teaching, scholarship and service among tenured faculty — a post-tenure review process involving “extensive annual performance evaluations indicating whether faculty are meeting expectations, exceeding expectations or needing improvement.”
During the 2021-22 academic year, UNI administrators told lawmakers, 33 of its 351 tenured faculty were cited for needing improvement: 15 for scholarship-related issues; nine for teaching concerns; and nine for “service.”
“All of these faculty members received $0 merit pay as a part of the current year’s annual salary raises,” UNI reported. “If improvement is not observed, the faculty members are then put on official performance improvement plans that will include sanctions.”
ISU said it has a “position responsibility statement” that tenure-eligible faculty must sign describing the responsibilities that are expected and will be reviewed. Faculty receive either satisfactory or unsatisfactory reviews and, although ISU didn’t provide specific annual numbers, officials said, “three to four tenured faculty members are placed on an improvement plan each year as a result of receiving an ‘unsatisfactory’ rating through this process.”
Those faculty also get no annual raise.
At the UI, departments each have their own annual review processes — approved by the dean and provost and often requiring faculty to provide documentation like resumes, teaching evaluations, research production and other records.
“Based on the criteria of each department, approximately one to two tenured faculty members are placed on an improvement plan each year across the entire university,” officials reported to lawmakers. “When placed on an improvement plan, these faculty members receive $0 merit pay as a part of the current year’s annual salary raises.”
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Ten years ago, 3,531 regents faculty were tenure eligible, amounting to 63 percent of the 5,637 faculty total. Last year’s tenured and tenure-track count fell to 3,009 across the three universities — or 53 percent of the 5,635 faculty total.
Where the University of Iowa in the 2012-13 academic year reported a majority of its faculty had tenure or were on a tenure track — at 54 percent — UI tenure-eligible faculty today are in the minority, at 44 percent.
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The UI — which, unlike Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa, employs nontenured “clinical” faculty through its health care enterprise — is the only of the three with a majority of non-tenure-track faculty.
Both ISU and UNI maintain a majority of tenure-eligible faculty, although their non-tenure-track percentages are rising — reaching 35 at UNI, compared with 28 percent a decade ago. ISU reports 33 percent of its faculty are not on a tenure track, up from 28 percent a decade ago.
But regardless of tenure status, the number of faculty is falling across all three campuses, dropping from more than 6,000 in 2020 to 5,635 last year. That echoes enrollment losses across the campuses and total workforce declines at UNI and ISU over the last five years.
While the number of faculty is down at the UI — which has seen enrollment dip from 32,065 in fall 2017 to 30,015 in fall 2022 — its total workforce has grown over those five years from 18,359 to 19,332, Board of Regents documents show. Much of those gains has come in the form of executive, administrative and managerial staff; professional and scientific staff; and non-tenure-track faculty. UI officials have said the health care operation is responsible for much of that.
“The health care enterprise continues to grow and is responsible for a large amount of the workforce,” UI spokesman Steve Schmadeke said. “As new clinics are established the growth continues and more staff is needed.”
Tenure, according to the regents’ definition, is an “employment status under which faculty members can receive heightened aspects of job security in order to create and maintain an atmosphere for the free exchange of ideas and inquiry necessary for educating Iowa’s students and advancing knowledge in democracy.”
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Tenured faculty still can be terminated if they don’t meet job expectations or obligations; if their program is cut; or if the university experiences an existential financial crisis. Tenured faculty — who receive such status only after a six-year probationary period involving ongoing reviews and recommendations — also can received a “full range of disciplinary actions” short of being fired.
'Tired of playing Whac-A-Mole’
Tenure has become a hot topic, with Iowa Republican lawmakers proposing measures — including in the most recent Legislative session — to ban Iowa’s public universities from offering it. A version of the ban was shelved this year, but not before lawmakers expressed concerns over liberal-leaning professors.“I’ve been contacted by a lot of students in my district, some outside my district, regarding — for lack of a better term — just some of the irrational, woke stuff that’s going on on college campuses, the feeling that they’re denied free speech if you’re a conservative,” Rep. Steve Holt, a Republican from Denison, said in January.
Referencing issues across the three campuses involving left-leaning syllabus instructions, bias against conservative student organizations or administrative mass emails countering Republican ideology, Holt said, “I’m tired of playing Whac-A-Mole with these issues going on at universities.”
Legislative funding in recent years has fallen short of regent requests — like this year when lawmakers agreed to a combined $7.1 million bump linked to specific programs across the campuses, instead of the $32 million more in general education funding the institutions sought.
Responding to lawmaker concerns about lack of free speech and too much diversity, equity and inclusion spending and programming, the Board of Regents has formed committees to review the issues.
But, on tenure alone, regent lobbyists have told lawmakers nixing it would make competing for top faculty and researchers nearly impossible — compelling many already on campus to leave, hampering recruitment and harming the quality of education offered to UI, ISU and UNI students.
Research grants could dry up, they say, alongside enrollment and tuition revenue — tanking the reputation for quality higher education.
'Not meeting standards’
Republican lawmakers this year demanded Iowa’s public universities share details about how tenured faculty are evaluated, what could place them on a “performance plan” and how often that happens.UNI reported developing “post-tenure review sanctions” — to be implemented July 1 — aimed at “faculty who are not meeting standards in teaching, scholarship or service, including those assessed with documented continuous and persistent problems,” according to board documents.
Even before the new sanctions, UNI departments had in place methods for evaluating teaching, scholarship and service among tenured faculty — a post-tenure review process involving “extensive annual performance evaluations indicating whether faculty are meeting expectations, exceeding expectations or needing improvement.”
During the 2021-22 academic year, UNI administrators told lawmakers, 33 of its 351 tenured faculty were cited for needing improvement: 15 for scholarship-related issues; nine for teaching concerns; and nine for “service.”
“All of these faculty members received $0 merit pay as a part of the current year’s annual salary raises,” UNI reported. “If improvement is not observed, the faculty members are then put on official performance improvement plans that will include sanctions.”
ISU said it has a “position responsibility statement” that tenure-eligible faculty must sign describing the responsibilities that are expected and will be reviewed. Faculty receive either satisfactory or unsatisfactory reviews and, although ISU didn’t provide specific annual numbers, officials said, “three to four tenured faculty members are placed on an improvement plan each year as a result of receiving an ‘unsatisfactory’ rating through this process.”
Those faculty also get no annual raise.
At the UI, departments each have their own annual review processes — approved by the dean and provost and often requiring faculty to provide documentation like resumes, teaching evaluations, research production and other records.
“Based on the criteria of each department, approximately one to two tenured faculty members are placed on an improvement plan each year across the entire university,” officials reported to lawmakers. “When placed on an improvement plan, these faculty members receive $0 merit pay as a part of the current year’s annual salary raises.”
Tenured faculty continue to wane across Iowa universities
The tally of tenured and tenure-track faculty across Iowa’s public universities in the academic year that just wrapped continued down a slope that began a decade ago — when 3,531 Board of Regents faculty were tenure eligible, amounting to 63 percent of the 5,637 faculty total.
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